Close Ups On Gray- 7 January 2009

It's the glamorous season of report writing and I really needed to get out of the office today. I wanted to take some pictures, but we've had fog and drizzle for a few days straight. I have a hard time getting decent photos in this kind of lighting so I decided to concentrate on closeup work. This first picture is of one of the managed seasonal wetland cells at Kokopelli Wildlife Area--you can see what the weather was like. I know, not exactly a close-up, but I wanted you to feel what the weather was like. These seasonal wetland areas at Kokopelli are managed primarily for wintering waterfowl and migratory shorebird usage. We spend the summer growing up crops of desirable wetland plants, then we mow and disc areas to create open water in the winter and mudflats in the spring as the water recedes. We provide habitat for up to 20,000 ducks on any given winter day.
One of the good things about doing close ups for me is that plants and leaves don't move around nearly as much as birds or other critters. It makes it a little easier for me to get in close. Unless I happened to spend the previous night closing down the bars. I found a small grove of young cottonwood trees that we planted a few years ago and there were still some leaves hanging on.

cottonwood leaves and creeping wildrye seedhead

I took several photos of this leaf before I realized that it looked like the head of a goldeneye or bufflehead. It even has an eye.

Another of the same leaf but a little closer.


A patch of goldenrod caught my eye nearby as well.




And what would a group of photos be without the obligatory log reflected on water. I call this one: Log Reflected on Water.That's all I got for today. And, I know what you're probably thinking: Yet another blog entry padded by crummy photos with no real substance. If this guy doesn't want to write, why the hell did he start a blog and not just open up a Flickr account? Is Kraft macaroni really the cheesiest? Will I ever be able to recover these three minutes of my life?

Well, to be honest: get off my back, yes, and probably not.